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"Lady Florentia, Your Grace," Quintin announced just seconds before the lady appeared from the maze behind him with her personal maid in tow. Instinctively, Watson had to grit his teeth to stop himself from snapping at her. They had conversed many times over how he wished for the lady to meet his daughter, and this most definitely had not been upon that list.
Glancing back over his shoulder at his daughter and Miss Percival, he saw that they were both now uninterested in their books. Their full attention was now fixed upon the guests who had just arrived.
Florentia! What are you doing?Watson thought desperately, wondering how badly this might affect his daughter and whether or not she might start to act out again.
"Ah, the Duke!" Lady Florentia exclaimed as she walked around the pond, her personal maid struggling to keep up and hold a white parasol above her mistress's head at the same time. Watson started toward them both and when he met Florentia half-way around the pond, he gripped her forearms as she came to greet him as she always did, expecting that he might peck her upon the cheek.
Instead, he scowled down at her and hissed under his breath, "Lady Florentia, what are you doing here? And without warning!"
Though he kept his voice low, the distaste was obvious in his voice, and he knew that she had sensed it in the way that she looked up at him with dismay. "Your Grace, forgive me, but you have not come to call in such a long time and I grew worried."
Could you not have sent a letter?Watson thought, though part of him wondered whether he might have received one and misplaced it somewhere as it was not quite so important as all the other letters he received on a daily basis.
"I have been meaning to come and see you." He sighed instead, knowing it would do no good to have an argument in front of his daughter. He could already feel her eyeing them suspiciously. "But you are here now and so I suppose there is only one thing left to do."
He gritted his teeth, struggling against the urge to snap at her all over again, and moved to stand beside her so that he could offer her the crook of his elbow. With a smile, she took his arm and allowed him to guide her the rest of the way around the pond.
"Lady Florentia Knightley, please allow me to introduce you to my daughter, Lady Amy Berkley."
As if she recognised the lady's name, Amy offered Lady Florentia a deep scowl and looked as if she were going to say something quite scathing. Before his daughter was able to go off like a firecracker, Watson added, "Lady Florentia, please also allow me to introduce you to my daughter's governess, Miss Matilda Percival."
Watson was not sure why but upon introducing them, he felt strange. A part of him even felt as though he had the wrong woman upon his arm. Where Miss Percival was fair and kind with golden blonde hair and warm hazel brown eyes, Lady Florentia was quite the opposite with dark brown locks tied back in a chignon and charcoal eyes that were so dark it sometimes hurt to look into them.
Yet she was one of the most eligible women in all the county, and so she was a good match for Watson, or so he had always been told, especially by his own father before his passing, many years even before Watson had married his wife, Louisa.
"It is a pleasure to meet you, Lady Florentia," Miss Percival greeted the woman with a curtsy, smiling warmly as she always did. Yet Lady Florentia eyed the governess quite suspiciously, turning up her nose and instead moving her attention quickly back to Amy.
"I am very pleased to finally meet you, Lady Amy," Florentia said, stepping away from Watson to offer the young girl her hand. Watson held his breath, waiting for his daughter's most outrageous response. He was all but certain that his daughter would be well aware of his connection to the lady. Though he had kept things as under wraps as possible, he knew his daughter was no fool.
"Lady Florentia, we are both honoured to meet you, are we not Lady Amy?" Miss Percival put in and she stepped up beside her charge to place a hand upon the girl's shoulder. Watson saw the way she squeezed gently in both comfort and warning.
It was in that moment, seeing the way that she reacted so kindly toward Florentia's coldness that Watson knew without a doubt he had gotten the correct measure of her. She was warm and polite and lady-like, graceful and charming and able to smile even in the fact of someone clearly being extremely disrespectful toward her.
Watson fought the urge to grab Florentia and shake her, to ask her whatever she thought she was doing, coming here, and disrespecting not only him in denying his request that they wait for her to meet his daughter but also disrespecting his staff in practically ignoring them and looking down her nose at them. The two women could not have been more different.
Was Florentia always this way?Watson thought, still able to see the distaste on the lady's face and the way she eyed Matilda out of the corner of her eye.
Though he had known her for some time, he had never been close with her, choosing only to begin courting her a few months ago when he realised that he could no longer take on the burden of his daughter alone, having remembered that she was one of the few women still unmarried who had been brought out into society beside his late wife, believing she would be mature enough a match for himself in his current situation.Perhaps I was wrong?
"Watson, sweetheart, are you quite well?" Lady Florentia asked and although it was not the first time she had spoken to him in such a manner, it was the first time that anyone had spoken to him in such a way in front of his daughter.
It most definitely rubbed him the wrong way and he flinched away when Lady Florentia reached out to touch his forearm. She scowled as if she noticed his distance and raised an eyebrow at him before she added, "Perhaps we might all go inside? I do believe you have had a little too much sun, Your Grace."
Watson would have liked to have retorted coldly in that moment, but he could still feel Amy and Miss Percival watching them closely.
"I am quite happy right here," Lady Amy responded for her, practically stomping her foot as if she wanted to set a boundary early on that she would not be ordered about by someone she clearly despised.And this is why I wished for you to meet my way!
"Miss Percival, I am sure that you and Lady Amy have much still to go through this afternoon?" Watson pointed out, gesturing back to the books that now lay discarded on the grass where they had all been resting. "I think perhaps I ought to let you both get back to it and I shall escort Lady Florentia back inside for some refreshments."
"Of course, Your Grace," Miss Percival smiled at him so warmly that it thawed his suddenly frozen heart. She curtsied before adding, "We have greatly enjoyed your company, Your Grace. Have we not, Lady Amy?"
Watson felt more than saw Lady Florentia tense beside him. Clearly, she had not liked how familiar the woman was with him and Watson struggled not to say something to her, something about how it was none of her business how familiar he was with his staff, after all, they were just that. They werehisstaff.
"And I you, Miss Percival," Watson responded, bowing his head to the woman before he turned to his daughter and assured her, "I shall see you at dinner."
A part of him wished to invite Miss Percival to dinner again for all her hard work, yet he could only begin to imagine how that might look to Lady Florentia.
"Yes, Papa," Lady Amy said sweetly though when she glanced at Florentia again, her happy expression fell.
